Laura, a new graduate from Cornell Unversity’s School of Hotel Administration, could not believe her good luck. She was recently offered a new entrylevel position as an operations analyst at ARAMARK, one of the most admired U.S. companies, according to Fortune magazine (ARAMARK is a leader in professional services, providing award-winning food services, facilities management, and uniform and career apparel to health care institutions, universities and school districts, stadiums and arenas, and businesses around the world). The reason for Laura’s excitement was also because of the unique opportunity she was getting in her first assignment: she was going to Beijing during the 2008 Olympics to work for ARAMARK food services. Over the years, ARAMARK has provided food services to many large-scale events, including the last 13 Olympic Games. For example, during the 2004 Athens Olympics, ARAMARK worked with its partner, the Daskalantonakis Group (the leading Greek hospitality and tourism group), to provide meals for the largest Olympic Village in history. The Olympic Village in Athens hosted Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games participants, coaches, officials and Games personnel. ARAMARK and the Daskalantonakis Group served more than two million meals to participants, coaches, and officials throughout the 60-day duration of both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Some of the other large-scale food service events managed by ARAMARK included serving over 340,000 motor fans who attended one of the biggest events in Spain last year: the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix in Barcelona. More than 1,100 ARAMARK employees served attendees more than 9,000 fruit dishes, 120,000 sandwiches, 40,000 hot dogs, and 40,000 cups of coffee during the three-day event. Some specialty gourmet dishes were also served, such as barbequed lamb steak, pumpkin and orange soup, and sole rolls with shrimp cream. While preparing for her job interview, Laura had become aware of the large scale of ARAMARK’s food service engagements. However, nothing had prepared Laura for the scale of the Beijing 2008 Olympics food service operations; Laura and all the other new employees had received a pre-event memo from their new boss, which stated that the ARAMARK team would be responsible for serving 3.5 million meals during the event (or 10,000 people per hour) that would not only pack a punch for peak performance but had to have the smells and tastes of home. The food service operations would have a staff of nearly 7,000—including some 230 chefs from 10 countries— to feed almost 65,000 athletes, coaches, officials, and members of the media throughout the Olympics. The memo further stated that ARAMARK’s biggest challenge would be to ensure that the food arrived at the right time, at the right temperature, and in the right quantities. In addition, dining during the Olympics would also be a social experience. Therefore, ARAMARK had to ensure that the athletes and visiting dignitaries got the highest quality service for a great experience. The memo also included a table (see Table 12.4), which listed some of the key inventories that needed to be managed to ensure that the food service operation was successful. After going through the memo and the attached table, Laura wondered if she should still feel lucky or she should start panicking. Her job was to support the assistant director in effectively managing inventory for the food service operations. She wondered if she could apply the concepts she learned about lean enterprise in her final semester operations management class to this first “real-world” job. Table 12.4 Inventory for 2008 Beijing Olympics Food Service Operations To serve a “world menu” of more than 800 recipes throughout the Games requires: • 93,000 pounds of seafood • 130 tons of meat • 38,000 pounds of pasta (dry) • 134,000 pounds of rice (about 20 million half-cup servings when cooked) • 743,000 (or 232 tons) potatoes • 800,000 (or 44 tons) eggs • 1 million apples • 936,000 bananas • 312,000 oranges • 684,000 carrots • Nearly 24 tons of onions • 50,000 pounds of mushrooms • 57,000 pounds of cheese • 190,000 loaves of bread • 5,500 pounds of butter • 16,000 pounds of tofu • 20,000 heads of lettuce All those ingredients will create a rotating menu of: • 320 hot main entrée dishes • 160 vegetable and potato dishes • 128 rice and pasta dishes • 400 different dessert, pastry, and bakery items

QUESTIONS

1. What are the unique aspects of inventory management in large-scale food services such as ARAMARK’s Olympic Games operations?

2. What lean production concepts can Laura apply in the above context? What challenges will she face?

3. What are the limits to applying lean principles in large food service operations such as ARAMARK’s Olympic Games operations?

An Environmental Engineer took a sample from the Holston River below King Port, Tennessee. The biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) test is conducted over a period of time in days. 1 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Time (days) BOD (mg/litre) 0.6 0.7 1.5 1.9 2.1 2.6 2.9 3.7 3.5 3.7 3.8 She assumed that linear regression model is appropriate for the data, and she fitted a linear regression model as follows: y = 0.658 +0.178 x If you know that x is the time, and y is BOD. Find the coefficient of determination of the linear model

Consider the pair of reactions in which ethylene (C₂H₄) is oxidized either to ethylene oxide (C₂H₄O, desired) or to carbon dioxide (undesired).

(hint: assume 100 moles feed entering in reactor)

                                    C₂H₄ + ½ O₂   → C₂H₄O

                                    C₂H₄ + 3 O₂ → 2 CO₂ + 2 H₂O

The feed to the reactor contains 25% mole ethylene and 75% mole oxygen. The conversion of ethylene is 75% and the selectivity of ethylene oxide over carbon dioxide is 12.

a) determine ξ₁ and ξ₂ (18 mole, 0.75mole)

b) Calculate the molar composition (mole fractions) of the outlet stream. (0.069, 0.7, 0.198, 0.016, 0.016)

b) Calculate the fractional yield of ethylene oxide.(0.72)

The Brookfield Corporation is considering a four-year project with the following data; What is the project NPV using wacc of 11.3%?

Additional investment in fixed assets but no additional working capital $100,000

Straight-line depreciation rate 25% but zero salvage value after four years

Annual sales revenues (constant for every year) $75,000

Operating costs (excl. depreciation) (also constant) $25,000

Tax rate 21.0%

Trumbull Inc. has $4.8 million  EBIT, $1.2 million depreciation, a tax rate of .4, a capital expenditure of $0.7 million, and an increase in NOWC of $1.1 million. To the nearest 0.1 million, what is its free cash flow?

The risk-free rate over the last ve years was 1% per year. The market return averaged 13% per year with a standard deviation of 20%. The Copper Fund had an alpha of 2.5% per year with a beta of 0.7 while the Gold Fund had an alpha of 3.6% with a beta of 1.4. The Sharpe ratios of the two funds were 0.48 and 0.39 respectively. Investors hold these mutual funds in conjunction with others to create a well-diversified portfolio of risky securities.

Is it valid to conclude that Gold Fund performed better because it had a higher alpha? Why or why not? Calculate appropriate performance metric to find the fund that performed better.

Suppose that you are designing an instrument panel for a large industrial machine. The machine requires the person using it to reach 2 feet from a particular position. The reach from this position for adult women is known to have a mean of 2.6 feet with a standard deviation of 0.4. The reach for adult men is known to have a mean of 3.3 feet with a standard deviation of 0.7. Both​ women's and​ men's reach from this position is normally distributed. If this design is​ implemented, (a) what percentage of women will not be able to work on this instrument​ panel? (b) What percentage of men will not be able to work on this instrument​ panel? (c) Explain your answers to a person who has never had a course in statistics.

Current (annualised) US Treasury spot rates are as follows:

Bond Cashflows:

Maturity: 2 years semi annual

Par value: 100

Coupon: 1.625/2 = 0.8125

6 months from now = 0.8125

1 year from now = 0.8125

1.5 year from now= 0.8125

2 years from now = 100+0.8125

From the US treasury spot rates above and assuming Z-spread of 35 basis points, calculate appropriate discount rates (implied spot rates) for this bond’s cash flows. Show calculations.

According to the US Census Bureau, the Gini Coefficient in the United States was 0.397 in 1967, and 0.480 in 2014. The Gini coefficient is a measure of inequality that ranges from 0 to 1, where higher numbers indicate greater inequality. According to the World Bank, countries with Gini coefficients between 0.5 and 0.7 are characterized as highly unequal. Using the idea that Incentives Matter, analyze BOTH the pros of some income inequality and the cons of excessive income inequality.

Some income inequality can be good because of the " trickle down effect" and rewarding hard work and taking risks and investments.

The cons of excessive income inequality are unfair monopoloy, homelessness, and can easily lead to poverty.

Given that the average number of fast neutrons emitted following the thermal-neutron induced fission of 235U is 2.42 per fission event; use the following data to calculate the mean number of fission neutrons produced per initial thermal neutron in a large volume sample of
(a) pure 235U (b) natural uranium 238U, and (c) uranium enriched to 3% in the 235U isotope.
Note: The microscopic absorption cross section for 235U is 694 barns. The cross section for 238U is 2.71 barns. The fission cross section for 235U is 582 barns. Natural uranium contains 0.7% 235U.
Comment on you results in terms of operation of a thermal reactor of finite size.

1) Suppose Ed=0.5 for a given good. If there's a 5% change in price, what is the change in quantity demanded (Qd)? and Suppose once again that E=0.5, but there's now a 15% change in price (all else equal). Calculate the change in quantity demanded.

2) Briefly explain how total revenue (TR) will be affected in each of the following cases (use the TR formula):

a) Demand is elastic and price increases

b) The price elasticity of demand (Ed)= 0.7 and price increases

c) demand is elastic and price decreases

d) demand is perfectly inelastic (Ed=0) and price increases

e) demand is inelastic and price decreases